


Clarke's Laws

by emungere



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-28
Updated: 2005-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:46:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2684861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emungere/pseuds/emungere





	Clarke's Laws

Kouryuu didn't believe in magic. He didn't have to; he knew it was real. 

It was late fall, early winter. Last night was their first crystal dusting of snow. He swept leaves into piles. He swept piles into bigger piles. One of the trees kept shedding blood red leaves with spidery edges that got stuck in the paving stones, in his sandals, and in his hair. He picked them up by hand, one, two, five, six, ten, and then he sat down behind the pile and leaned back against it. 

He watched his breath twist like smoke from Koumyou's pipe into the lead grey sky and listened to the younger monks. They didn't like him, he knew. Lots of them didn't like being here. Shuuei had told him that a lot of the younger ones were here because their families couldn't afford to feed them. 

"No, I swear, it's magic," one of them was saying. "It's a magic box." 

"It is not a magic box, you moron. There's no such thing. It's just a trick." 

_It's just a trick._

Kouryuu remembered Koumyou saying that. He'd been five or six, had woken from a dream about shadows and darkness to see something in the corner of his room. It was like a shadow itself, but thicker, more solid. It moved with the sound of wings. 

He hadn't had time to do more than blink before Koumyou was there. The sutras swirled about him in a paper whirlwind, and he was smiling, and his pipe was in one hand, and he was saying words Kouryuu didn't understand. 

The shadow-thing crept across the wall and stopped. It leaned towards Koumyou, rather than away. The sutras laced through it and drew it in, and then it was gone. 

The silence afterward had seemed oddly loud. It was high summer, but the insects were all quiet. Koumyou sat with Kouryuu all the rest of the night, and Kouryuu shed a few tears, even though it had happened too quickly for fear. 

Of course, he was older now, and he wouldn't cry if it happened again, and he'd send Koumyou back to his own room, too. Things you do when you're five don't count. Shuuei had told him that. And anyway, he was eleven now, and that was more than twice as old. 

But Koumyou had talked to him for hours that night, about places he'd gone and people he knew, about the mountains in Tibet and how the stars looked different in some places than in others and how they were so clear when you were up high that it seemed like you could touch them. 

"That's dumb," Kouryuu had said. "You can't touch stars. They'd burn you up." 

Koumyou had smiled and ruffled his hair. "Yes, that's right. That's what stars do. Aren't you a bright one." 

"I'm not a baby," Kouryuu had said (although clearly he had been). 

"No, I can see that. You weren't even scared, were you?" 

"How did you do the thing?"

"The thing?"

"The thing that made it go away."

"Oh, it's just a trick," Koumyou had said. "You'll get the hang of it one day." 

Kouryuu still wondered what he'd meant by that. He knew more about the sutras now. He knew they would only work for Koumyou, until he left them to someone. He wondered if that person was meant to be him. He thought he wouldn't mind that, as long as it was still a long time before it happened. 

"Hey," someone was saying. "Hey, kid." 

Kouryuu looked up and saw the youngest of the monks, only arrived a few weeks ago. He didn't call Kouryuu names and he'd helped with the sweeping once or twice. Kouryuu didn't know his name. 

"What?"

"I'm leaving. I fucking hate it here. I'm gonna get a real job, not all this praying shit." He paused, and then dropped something into Kouryuu's lap. "That's for you. My dad gave it to me before I left home, but whatever. I'd probably just lose it."

"What is it?"

"It's magic." The young monk squatted down beside him. "See, you put like a coin or whatever in this side, and you twist it like this, and--"

And the coin had vanished. 

"How did it do that!" Kouryuu demanded. 

The monk grinned. "You'll figure it out, smart kid like you. Bye. Hey, maybe I'll see you around someday." 

He left Kouryuu staring intently at the box. He twisted it this way and that. Bits of it popped up and other sections sank. The coin was still gone. It wasn't magic. It was just a trick. Some kind of mechanism. He knew that. He'd figure it out eventually.


End file.
